The materials for week three of First Church University: The Kingdom Experiment can be found here. I look forward to gathering this Wednesday to hear how God has been using these discussions, explorations, and experiments to shape our hearts and extend His Kingdom.

In an effort to extend this conversation beyond just Wednesday evenings, each Thursday we’ll post the materials that we used to help us better discuss Jesus’ words in Matthew 5. If you weren’t able to join us last night, we’d love to have you next week.

The materials for week 1 can be found in PDF form by clicking HERE.

You can sense the tension we feel when we read these words by the way we normally try to explain them. We know that the poor, those who mourn, and the persecuted and oppressed are not really blessed. So we often say that Jesus meant that these people are spiritually blessed in spite of not being physically blessed. Or we turn these statements into a checklist of Christian morality. In other words, the Christian must be a gentle, merciful, pure in heart, peacemaker. There is some truth in both of these statements but I think somehow they miss the point that Jesus is really making.

Only in a world completely different from ours could these statements be true. In our world, the powerful, influential, and violent inherit the earth, not the gentle. In our world, the merciful are usually taken advantage of rather than receiving mercy in return. In our world… well you get the idea.

What Jesus is describing in the beatitudes is a world which operates by different rules than our own. He is describing the Kingdom of God, a kingdom which is backwards and upside down in comparison to the kingdoms of this world. These words are not an observation about how things are or a checklist of Christian virtues. They are a promise of what is to come, a promise that one day things will really be different. They are a promise that one day those who mourn will find real comfort and that the violent and powerful will not always control everything and that mercy, purity, and peace are really possible.

As followers of Jesus, we live in the hope of these promises. It is the promise of God’s kingdom which sustains us as the Church. However, it is not our mission to simply sit around and wait for this kingdom to show up. We aren’t called to just get by in this life until Jesus fixes everything. Instead, the hope that we have for the future impacts how we live today. Because we believe that our world will play by different rules when God’s kingdom finally comes, we want to live by those rules now as witness to the new reality that we anticipate with eager expectation.

This Winter at First Church University, we will be participating in a study of the Beatitudes entitled The Kingdom Experiment. It is a study centered on the beatitudes but it is much more than just a Bible study. It is an experiment in intentionally living out our hopeful anticipation of the Kingdom of God. In addition to a lesson on one of the beatitudes each week, there will also be experiments from which to choose. These experiments are challenges to live out the kingdom value of that beatitude throughout the week.

Each week we’ll discuss the meaning and implications of Jesus’ words in Matthew 5. We’ll also be challenged to try a ‘kingdom experiment’  - a tangible and practical response to who Jesus is and what He is calling us toward with His words.

First Church University: The Kingdom Experiment begins this Wednesday at 7PM.

I believe that this study can help us to see the Kingdom of God in new ways and I hope that you will prayerfully consider participating.

We hope that ‘The Text This Week’ provides space to journey together. We would love for you to comment on this blog post or on our Facebook Page (where ‘The Text This Week’ will automatically be posted). We would be thrilled if you would choose to read these passages together as a family or as a spiritual exercise with friends

Monday - Luke 12:13-21

How much do you need? Both Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5 identify greed as a type of “idolatry” of loving something more than God. Jesus’ sad parable reminds us that our life not about how much we have. The day comes for all when the only question is “who will get all the stuff I’ve accumulated?”

• One option never occurs to the man in Jesus’ story. He never says “I’ve got more than enough. Maybe I’ll give some of it away.” How easy or hard is it for you to be generous with the money, time, or stuff you have? What wishes or fears get in the way of generosity?
• How do you understand Jesus’ phrase about being ‘rich toward God?’ What steps can you take, in your day to day life, to increase this kind of wealth in your life? How can you share that approach with your family or other people with whom you have influence in your life?

Tuesday - Deuteronomy 15:7-11

God called the people of Israel to a level of generosity that neither they nor we have fully lived up to. Jesus quoted part of this passage - “the poor will always be with you.” Some would use that passage to argue against generosity but that only works if we ignore the second half of verse 11.

• Verse 10 suggests that God doesn’t just care about what we do but also about the spirit in which we do it. With what kind of spirit do you give? What have you found that increases your joy in giving?
• Greed is about getting and hoarding more than you need while gluttony is about consuming too much. How do you understand the ‘evil thoughts’ against which gluttony warns? What rewards might come with the type of generosity these verses call for?

Wednesday - 1 Timothy 6:3-10

In New Testament times, as today, some people saw religious teaching as simply one more chance for profit. The solution to their greed, the bible says, is not just outward change to their behavior. The key is an inner change. True wealth comes from a contented spirit; not a wallet or a bank account.

• Verse 7 states a basic premise for the whole Bible’s teaching about greed. How “permanent” do some of your main possessions feel to you? How vital is that sense of permanence to your inner security? How has your inner “need” for your possessions changed during this time of economic ‘crisis?’
• In verse 10 we read that “the love of money” is the root of all kinds of evil. Whom have you known who seemed to have plenty of money but lived free of “the love of money?” Have you known or been a person who, even if living in relative poverty, felt the tug “of the love of money?”

Thursday - Matthew 19:16-20:16

In today’s story a young man asked Jesus how to find eternal life. When Jesus told him to break the grip the assets had on his heart, the young man went away sad. Jesus told a second story, a parable, that illustrates God’s vast generosity toward us. It also shows how easily we slip into greed.

• Many affluent people in the bible were not told to sell all they had. Why do you think Jesus instructed this young man to do this? What made it hard for him to respond to Jesus’ call?
• Which group of workers do you most identify with in Jesus’ story - the ones who worked all day or the late arrivals? For what reasons? Do you find God’s ‘unfair’ generosity a blessing or a curse?

Friday - 2 Corinthians 9:6-11

Paul was gathering a gift for the Christians in Jerusalem. He was more concerned with the heart from which people gave, though, than the amount collected. “God loves a cheerful giver” was more than just a slogan. It was a serious call to check why they gave.

• What influences and ways of thinking most strengthen your generous tendencies? What influences and fears pull you away from generosity?
• Have you ever found yourself giving reluctantly? How did that affect you? What do you think were Paul’s reasons for valuing cheerful hearts and willing spirits even over the positives of collecting a larger offering?

We hope that ‘The Text This Week’ provides space to journey together. We would love for you to comment on this blog post or on our Facebook Page (where ‘The Text This Week’ will be automatically posted). We would be thrilled if you would choose to read these passages together as a family or as a spiritual exercise with friends. Basically, we would love for the conversation we’ve shared on Sunday to be extended.

Monday - Matthew 23:25-38
Jesus defied many of the legalistic rules and rituals the religious leaders demanded in his day. He also, however, opposed their efforts to look pious while privately living self-indulgent lives. People would whitewash tombs as a warning, because touching a grave could cause ritual defilement. But whitewash or no, there was still a corpse inside.

• Greed may lead us to hoard stuff even if it is unused. Gluttony, on the other hand, is about consuming. What inner forces make gluttony acceptable?
• If gluttony was, in some ways, a relatively “respectable” sin, why did Jesus use such strong langauge? What made the self-indulgence of the religious leaders hypocritical? In what ways can an addiction to consumption of food or other pleasures be like a dead body at the center of a person’s life?

Tuesday - Proverbs 23:19-21
Biblical wisdom saw gluttony, in all of its forms, as sapping our life’s energy. Gluttony is not about weight or body shape. It’s about trying to satisfy our appetite for anything in ways that put that desire at the center of our life. In gluttony, we end up serving a false god.

• When is indulging in too much food, or anything else, a coping behavior, a symptom of a deeper inner pain or problem? Under what conditions can the urge to consume too much become a problem in itself, rather than a symptom? How effectively can trust in God help us in either of these situations?

Wednesday - Colossians 2:16-23
Facing any of the deadly sins, our first thought often is, “Let’s make strict rules, for ourselves and others.” We tend to think the key to too much indulgence might be a strict diet - “don’t touch, don’t taste, don’t handle.” Paul tells the Christians in Colossae that just abiding by outward rules leaves the root problem untouched.

• Regulations, Paul says, seem wise but in themselves they do not change our inner desires. Have you ever tried to put yourself on a strict program (for any purpose) when you had not inwardly “bought in” to what you’re doing? What were the results? Why does inward change generally precede lasting outward change?

Thursday - Tituls 2:11-14
Paul says that the point of self control is not to take good things out of life but to free us to live effectively and joyfully for God.

• Do you equate the words “self control” with joy and freedom or with a sense of self-deprivation and sadness?

Friday - Matthew 6:25-34
Jesus invited us to trust that God really cares for us. In God’s hands, he said, we are safe for all eternity, no matter what challenges this life brings. He saw, as we often do not, that our obsession with food and clothing is usually rooted in fear. We consume more and more now, because we fear that sometime we may not have enough.

• Which of the good things in your life do you believe you have because of God’s care and generosity? Which of them do you believe you have because of your hard work, initiative, drive or careful planning?
• Jesus says that those who do not know God worry constantly about day-to-day things like food and clothing. In what ways have you sensed that your commitment to Jesus has reduced the “worry quotient” in your life? What additional burdens of worry would you like to ask Jesus to help you lay aside?

We hope that ‘The Text This Week’ provides space to journey together. We would love for you to comment on this blog post or on our Facebook Page (where ‘The Text This Week’ will be automatically posted). We would be thrilled if you would choose to read these passages together as a family or as a spiritual exercise with friends. Basically, we would love for the conversation we’ve shared on Sunday to be extended.

Monday Read Psalm 73

Envy warped this psalmist’s perceptions and nearly led to spiritual ruin. Envy made the lives of others seem ideal-no troubles at all (verses 3-5). Envy looked only at current conditions and made serving God seem futile (verses 11, 13). When the psalmist brought eternity into the picture, life came back into clearer spiritual focus (verses 21-26).

• For this psalmist, it was “the prosperity of the wicked” that nearly caused him to give up faith in God. But envy can also strike when we look at other believers (see Mark 10:35- 41). Whose position, possessions or prospects do you envy? When you examine the thoughts behind the envy, do you think they are accurate?
• At what times in your life have you asked, “Does the Most High know anything?” (v.11) How does the psalmist’s way of resolving envy in verses 21-26 speak to your heart? What have you found that helps you value the eternal over the finite, and the divine over the human?

Tuesday Read Psalm 23:1-6

This beloved psalm never looks at what anyone else has. It rejoices in the abundance that comes from God’s presence with the psalmist-a reality each of us can experience. Envy, said Aquinas, grieves when something good happens to ourneighbor. H.L. Mencken said that in America, “contentment is making $10 a month more than your brother-in-law”!

• Verse 1 is traditionally translated “I shall not want.” Modern versions say,”I have all I need,” or “I lack nothing.” Since this psalm seems to reflect David’s days as a shepherd, rather than as King of Israel, how do you believe it defines “need”? How often can you honestly say you feel that you have all you need?
• Reread verses 4-6. After each phrase, ask yourself, “Is this true of me?” Consider how important of each of these things is, compared to the items at the top of your current personal “wish list.” Thank God for each phrase you have internalized, that you can honestly say you believe.

Wednesday Read 1 Corinthians 12:12-27

Paul described Christians as a “body,” with Jesus Christ as the head. Feet, hands, eyes and internal organs each have a unique role to play in our physical body. God calls you to fill the role(s) in the Body of Christ you are best equipped to fill. Being content with serving as the “body part” you truly are is the best way to find joy and effectiveness.

• Usually we do okay in the body of Christ at living out “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” We pray for each other and show caring in various ways. What have you experienced as far as “if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it”? How do you feel when someone else is honored, especially if your role feels unseen?
• Paul’s image of jealous, moping body parts becomes funny if you try to picture such a thing really happening with your hands or feet. Of course, it was really happening among the Christians in Corinth. It’s been happening ever since. When have you sen envy limit a group’s, or a person’s, usefulness?

Thursday Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love does not envy, Paul writes. How could it? Love does not delight in evil - but one of envy’s worst qualities is the hidden delight we feel when something had happens to a person we envy. Love keeps no record of wrongs - envy is fixated on keeping score. Love is kind - sadly, envy feels that it can’t afford the luxury of kindness.

• In which of your day-to-day relationships are you able to live out most of the qualities of love that Paul lists readily and easily? In which relationships is it a struggle to show these qualities, even with gritted teeth? How can God’s love help us to grow in our capacity to love more naturally?
• Paul also says that love does not boast and is not self-seeking. Have you ever wished that others would envy something about you or your life? Is it possible that one big reason we are tempted by boasting and self-seeking is a desire to produce envy in others?

Friday Read Galatians 5:13-23

Here Paul describes the vast spiritual freedom Christ offers each of us. We can live free of the deadly sins by finding our true selves, led by God’s Spirit, and bearing the Spirit’s fruit. “Against such things there is no law.”

• Like Jesus, Paul quotes Leviticus 19:18 (”Love your neighbor as yourself”) as summing up all of the law. How do the deadly sins keep you from that kind of love for your neighbor? How do the fruits of the Spirit create a way of life in which it is increasingly natural for you to love your neighbor?

We hope that ‘The Text This Week’ provides space to journey together. We would love for you to comment on this blog post or on our Facebook Page (where ‘The Text This Week’ will be automatically posted). We would be thrilled if you would choose to read these passages together as a family or as a spiritual exercise with friends. Basically, we would love for the conversation we’ve shared on Sunday to be extended.

Monday, October 12 - Read Genesis 4:1-10. This is a primal story of tragedy. Cain is angry with his brother Abel and with God. God warns Cain that the anger he holds in his heart has lethal risks. But Cain ignores God’s message, plots to act out his anger, and kills his brother.

• What was the spiritual danger against which God warned Cain?
• How does the image of sin ‘crouching’ in wait fit with your experience?

Tuesday, October 13 - Read Ephessians 4:22-39. This text says that Christians can be angry without sinning. At the same time it calls for us to rid ourselves of destructive bitterness, rage, and anger.

• John Wesley once wrote that if he could gather 100 people who “hate nothing but sin” that he could change the world. List some kinds of evil in the world that you think make God angry.
• What do you believe are some characteristics of righteous anger?

Wednesday, October 14 - Read Romans 12:19. Anger prompts us to want to even the score. This text seems to imply that such efforts are foolish.

• How likely are you to buy a shirt that says “I don’t get mad - I get even?”
• What would change in your life if you really did believe that it was God’s to avenge and not yours?

Thursday, October 15 - Read Matthew 5:21-22. This text indicates the toxic nature of anger. It begins with an emotion to be aware of and moves to an attitude of contempt and then to a destructive deed.

Friday, October 16 - Read Mark 3;1-6. This story shows that there are some things that should make us angry.

• What made Jesus angry?
• How does Jesus use anger in a redeeming way?
• What anger in your life could God be wanting to redeem for good?

But, in the spirit of ‘Seven,’ I’d like to share some specific hopes:

1. We often talk about how Jesus has come to restore, redeem, and renew all things - including you and me. As we talk weekly about these seven sins it would be easy for us to limit God’s work in our lives to just getting rid of our sins. My hope is that these messages reaffirm God’s desire to renew us and also remind us how God’s mission is to extend that renewal to the world.
2. But we cannot deny that the restoration of all things means that the sin problem must be remedied. I hope that we see how the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus heals us.
3. In our culture the word ’sin’ has become a dirty word. Saying the word “sin” in public is like saying “bomb” at the airport. You just don’t. I hope this series of teachings reintroduces the word into our vocabulary.
4. Instead of “sin” we would rather say “issue,” “mistake,” “problem,” or “flaw.” These words are helpful but they only serve to downplay our negative feelings about sin. Irregardless of what we call it, sin’s impact and destructiveness continue to contaminate and destroy our lives. I hope our time together reminds us that sin really is deadly.
5. Sin is real. But so is grace. We’ll talk about the truth of sin. But we’ll also talk about the truth of grace. In fact, I hope we learn more about God’s grace than we do about our sin.
6. Maybe even more damaging than sin is the guilt that accompanies. Too often that guilt has come from the church. Instead of offering condemnation and guilt I hope we offer hope.
7. Jesus Christ wants to wrap us in a grace-filled life that is mended by love and free from the death and destruction of sin. More than anything I hope we’re awakened to God’s ability to resurrect anything that has been damaged by sin.

Seven starts Sunday October 4 2009. For service times and other information we would love for you to visit our website: www.lafayettenaz.org

We hope that ‘The Text This Week’ provides space to journey together. We would love for you to comment on this blog post or on our Facebook Page (where ‘The Text This Week’ will automatically be posted). We would be thrilled if you would choose to read these passages together as a family or as a spiritual exercise with friends.

This week we read from Genesis 32:22-32. We noticed how Jacob wrestled with God by the Jabbok River. We observed that we inherit from this story 2 new names and 1 new dietary change. The first name, Peniel, which means ‘the face of Godl’ tells us that our wrestling with God is personal. The second name, Israel, points to the radical transformation that happens when we wrestle with God: we receive a new identity. The dietary change helps us remember that our moment of transformation happens in our weakness. In case you missed it, all of our messages are posted on the church’s website.

Monday August 31 Read Genesis 32:1-8 Jacob, after fleeing from his brother Esau and living with his Uncle Laban for 20 years, believes that God is calling him to return home. He makes the first contact with his brother Esau by sending messengers to them. The messengers return with news that Esau is coming to meet Jacob with 400 men. Because he was fearful, Jacob carefully prepares for this meeting.

Tuesday September 1 Read Genesis 32:9-12. Jacob’s preparation involves more than just strategy. Because of his shrewdness, Jacob can plan. Because of his vulnerability, Jacob must pray.

Wednesday September 2 Read Genesis 32:13-21. The final preparations for the meeting are made. The presentation of gifts is supposed to impress Esau with Jacob’s generosity and with his wealth. Jacob has now done everything he can. He has made careful and calculated preparations to play upon the sympathies of his brother. He has made petition to God and entrusted himself to his care. Now there is waiting.

Thursday September 3 Read Genesis 32:22-26. Jacob anticipates the wrath of his brother but first he must face an assault from God. The wrestling itself is hardly described. We only know that it lasted all night. Finally, just when Jacob seemed to have the upper hand, God lightly brushed Jacob’s hip. Jacob clung on to God and demanded to be blessed.

Friday September 4 Read Genesis 32:27-31 After the wrestlers are exhausted in conflict, they are reduced to speech. In the first exchange Jacob demands a  blessing. In the second exchange God asks Jacob his name and gives him a new one. Jacob had asked for blessing. Perhaps he dreamed of security, land, more sons. But what he got was a new identity through an assault with God.